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Rev. Chris Jimmerson
January 2, 2022
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We will whisper the things we would like to let go of in the new year and release them to the wind.

 

 

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

WE HOLD A SPACE FOR YOU
– Rev. Chris Jimmerson

Come into this sacred space
even as it is currently virtual space.
Bring with you your joys, your hopes,
all that you love,
that which you hold holy.

Join in this, our beloved spiritual community.
Bring with you also your imperfections,
your secret fears and unspoken hurts,
those things that you still hold
but that you yearn to release.

Bring too, your wildest imaginings,
that what together we might create,
or at least create more of in our world.

Come, we hold a hallowed spiritual space for you
in this, our time of virtual worship.

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Learn more about Beloved Community at this link. – The King Center

Meditation Reading

BURNING THE OLD YEAR
Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

Sermon

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